Accounting is a process involving recording, classifying, and summarizing the financial character of an organization. In particular, accounting identifies and classifies the different events that occur to and by the organization to generate reports. For example, such events may include changes in the number of employees, transactions performed, a change in filing status of the business, and other such events. The generated reports may be used by government agencies (e.g., the internal revenue service (IRS), the federal trade commission (FTC)) and individuals (e.g., critics, investors, potential investors) to identify the financial health of the organization and make financial decisions. For example, the reports may be used to determine whether and how to perform financial transactions with the organization. Because the reports are used to make financial decisions, accuracy in the reports is important.
The process of accounting often involves the organization, recording, and classifying of transactions using an accounting application. The accounting application typically generates a file including the organized, recorded, and classified transactions. Typically, an accountant reviews and revises the files for clients (e.g., the business organization) (or business units of a corporate entity directly). Specifically, the accountant reviews the classification of various transactions involving the client (or business unit), determines whether the classification of each transaction is correct, and revises the classification if the classification is incorrect.